"Learn something new every day"

Wow, TC - initially I wanted to post that I've finally learned that I want kids after all. Now I'm not so sure anymore.

Quick fact I learned this morning: My car's left front wheel wasn't attached to the steering anymore - it just followed the other wheel's direction most of the time, but went flopping in slow curves. Now it's garage time again, and the joys of driving a french rental car for me.
 
criticalmass said:
Quick fact I learned this morning: My car's left front wheel wasn't attached to the steering anymore - it just followed the other wheel's direction most of the time, but went flopping in slow curves. Now it's garage time again, and the joys of driving a french rental car for me.
Click to expand...

This is slowly turning into "quick random fact of the day," and wasn't the original spirit or intent of the thread. People need to think about what they can teach other people here, because nobody cares that you learned about the contents of your refrigerator this morning. That's not to say that interesting situations you're involved in should've be discussed on the board, but they deserve their own threads, rather than crutching conversation on a catch-all thread for minutiae not interesting enough to deserve their own threads. That's what irc is for.
 
Today I learned that most pop and rock records are compressed (dynamics compressions, not filesize compression) to the point where they cannot be compressed any more.
 
ChrisReid said:
Posts like this are going to get people banned and threads closed. You've got to realize what gets a chuckle in your middle school classroom won't get the same response here. And Kris might take it personally.
Click to expand...

I actually didnt post that to be funny. It was the only new thing i have learned the last weeks, and i was quite shocked by it. I can see that it's offensive though, and i wont post anything like it again.
 
Dyret said:
I actually didnt post that to be funny. It was the only new thing i have learned the last weeks, and i was quite shocked by it. I can see that it's offensive though, and i wont post anything like it again.
Click to expand...

Well then, today I learned that people don't always recognize it when they learn something new every day.

I also learned that people can even be morons in virtual worlds, after seeing a Leroy Jenkins video... :rolleyes:
 
Today I learned that it's really not the correct way to garnish a plate of food if it's on the rim of the plate or bowl. Whereas I was sprinkling parsley around the edge of a pasta entree, cause I thought it looked really good, an intern of the culinary school expressed to me that she didn't like it. So I asked the head chef if it was improper to do. He said that while many of our customers wouldn't notice or care (many actually think it looks good), in any culinary institute you'd be taught to keep the garnishes off the rim of the plates and bowls.

I was certain that even if you were making a dessert and say, garnishing it with a chocolate syrup that you could do it in a nice design even on the rim. But apparently that's considered bad taste especially since that's where people will be grabbing the dish. It does make sense but I know on Iron Chef they do it. Then the head chef expressed to me the difference between a real competition and just some tv show. :(
 
Today I learned that drinking up to five cups of coffee per day can make it four or five times less likely that you will get parkinsons disease.
 
Yesterday I learned about the wonders of reversed phonemics. You remember the great backward masking craze on records? I read an article yesterday (by William Poundstone, from a book called "Big Secrets", if anyone is interested) which explained that a normal syllable in a word can change into two (in rare cases three) when played backwards, which (with some interpretation) can result in intelligible "messages". The example he gives is from the Beatles song "Number 9", where the words "number nine" reversed sound somewhat like "turn me on dead man", or syllables like "shoo be doo" turn into something close to "satan".
The author of the article apparently tested the hypothesis by playing songs rumored to contain "messages", and found cases of reversed phonemics in most of them. One of the few cases he actually found a real backmasked message was in a Al Yankovic song, where he say "Satan eats Cheez Whiz"...

EDIT: There is a site where you can test it for yourself: http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm
 
Today I learned that proxy servers can do wierd and wonderful things with FTP connections. As soon as I used an internet connection without a proxy, the problem just went away, and I had no problems uploading my website.
 
Today I leanrned that my pervious post as to the origin of the word "Hello" wasn't quite correct, Alexander Graham Bell didn't invent the word hello, but it was invented as a greeting for use over the telephone, although there were several similar variants before 1883.

Word Origins.org said:
This greeting is much newer than most people think. The use of hello as a greeting is only as old as the telephone. The first recorded use is from 1883.

It does, however, have earlier origins in other senses. It is a variant of hallo, which dates to 1840 and is a cry of surprise. That in turn is related to halloo, a cry to urge on hunting dogs. Halloo dates to about 1700, but a variant, aloo, appears in Shakeepeare's King Lear a century earlier than that.

And there is an even earlier variant, hollo, which dates to at least 1588 when Shakespeare used it in Titus Andronicus. There are also cognates in other Germanic languages.

Hello was not a shoo-in for the telephone greeting either. It competed with several other options, including Alexander Graham Bell's suggestion of Ahoy, but pulled into an early lead and by the end of the 1880s was firmly ensconced.
Click to expand...
 
I learned today that concussions can have residule damage even after the body heals the bruised brain tissue. Being that I have suffered close to 50 some concussions in my life, this has to be the most terrifying/Revealing fact about myself. :(

-Rance-
 
Today I learned one more reason why I avoid internet posting boards
 
Today I learned that something that should work perfect based on design alone will more often than not crash and burn when you need it most :(
 
vindicator said:
Being that I have suffered close to 50 some concussions in my life, this has to be the most terrifying/Revealing fact about myself. :(

-Rance-
Click to expand...


50? Hmm...you're going to be like Ray Ray in Not Another Teen Movie..."Coach sez one more concussion and I'll be..." Thud!
 
Maj.Striker said:
What is a fight wing prime minister?
Click to expand...
I meant right wing prime minister. Sorry.

Today I learned that most high level nuclear waste is currently being held in huge water baths until someone decides what to do with them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top